Michelle Obama Says Women Who Voted For Trump Voted Against Their Own Voice

Former first lady Michelle Obama on Wednesday criticized the 41 percent of women who — according to exit polls — voted for President Donald Trump in November, suggesting they didn’t think for themselves and voted against their own interests.

She talked at a marketing conference in Boston about her upcoming book, her experiences in the White House, and the discrimination that women face together.

Any woman who voted against Hillary Clinton — the first woman to win the nomination for a major party — voted against their own voice, Obama told the audience, according to Boston.com.

She suggested that women who voted for Trump followed the pack.

“Everybody’s trying to worry about what it means for Hillary … No, no, no. What does this mean for us as women?” she asked, according to the Washington Times. “That we look at those two candidates, as women, and many of us said, ‘He’s better for me. His voice is more true to me.’ To me that just says, you don’t like your voice. You just like the thing you’re told to like.”

The majority of white women without a college degree — 61 percent — supported Trump, as did 45 percent of white college-educated women, according to Five Thirty-Eight, Washington Post reported. Many of them were white evangelical Christian women who could not swallow Clinton’s belief that abortion is a women’s issue

“I would have never been able to guess a billionaire playboy from Manhattan would be the most pro-life president in history,” Penny Young Nance, president of Concerned Women for America and author of “Feisty & Feminine: A Rallying Cry For Conservative Women,” told Christianity Today.

Some women may agree with Obama that Trump is not the voice for women in America in 2017, but nothing could make those women be “with her.”

“I’m a college-educated, white, working American female, and I have found Hillary Clinton’s arrogance since her days in the White House so off-putting that anything and anyone, including Donald Trump, has more appeal,” Lesley Newman told the Post.

When Obama talked Wednesday about Trump, her tone changed, Fox reported. She said she wishes him success. That’s because she knows what it’s like to be in that position.

“We want him to be successful. He was elected,” she said. “When you’ve been in that position, you have a different perspective.”

Quite frankly we saw this in this election. As far as I’m concerned, any woman who voted against Hillary Clinton voted against their own voice in a way. To me, it doesn’t say as much about Hillary ― and everybody’s trying to wonder. Well, what does it mean for Hillary? No, no, no. What does it mean for us as women? That we look at those two candidates, as women, and many of us said, ‘That guy. He’s better for me. His voice is more true to me.’ Well, to me that just says you don’t like your voice. You like the thing we’re told to like.

Image: Sourav Aich

Obama said being in the White House taught her that she can do anything, but she doesn’t miss it.

“It was like being shot out of a cannon…with a blindfold and the spotlight on you,” she said when asked what it was like as First Lady, Boston.com reported.

Obama and other critics may not understand that Trump’s voice is precisely the voice of many of his female supporters, Washington Post reported. That is, “the traditionalist voice that speaks out against a liberal culture that many conservative women feel has left them behind”:

Some women simply did not find Trump’s more headline-grabbing comments offensive. In fact, some women found them attractive.

“I heard that he said something about groping women, and I’m thinking, ‘OK, No. 1, I think that’d be great. I like getting groped,’” Jane Biddick told New York magazine. “I’m heterosexual. I’m a woman, and when a guy gropes me, I get groping on them! I grope them back. Groping is a healthy thing to do. When you’re heterosexual, you grope, OK? It’s a good thing. Try it.”

About Dana Sanchez

Dana Sanchez is the editor of Moguldom.com and AFKInsider.com. She has worked in digital and print news media as a business writer and news editor. She has a master's degree in mass communications from the University of South Florida. Prior to working in news, Dana worked in advertising.

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